Stories of Great Inventors | Page 6

times.
Then, after a busy day in the field, other work remained to be done.
The cotton pickers sat upon the ground in a circle.
From the midst of the cotton they took the black seeds.
These seeds were very troublesome.
They are covered with hairs.

They cling fast to the cotton.
These naughty children of the plant love their mother.
So fast do they cling to her, that a person could clean but one pound of
cotton in a whole day.
So you may understand why so little was raised.
In 1784, eight bags of cotton were taken from the United States to
England.
These were seized by the custom officers.
These officers are those who look after goods sent in or out of a
country.
If money is to be paid upon the goods, it is called a duty.
The custom officers must see that the duty is paid.
These men said that this cotton could not have come from America.
During the next two years less than one hundred-twenty bags were sent
there from our country.
The treaty of peace with England was made in 1794.
None of the treaty-makers then knew that any cotton was raised in
America.
Would you like to know why, fifty years later, a million bales were sent
from America?
This is the story:
In the war with England, America had some brave generals.
One of these was General Nathaniel Greene.

He had helped to win victories in the South.
The State of Georgia gave him a tract of land.
General Greene lived with his family upon this land.
He at last died there.
Mrs. Greene was very lonely.
She went to the North to visit her friends.
On her voyage home she met a pleasant gentleman.
He was a young man, only twenty-seven years of age.
He, too, was going to Georgia.
His name was Eli Whitney.
And now you must know something of his story.
Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765.
His people were farmers.
They were not rich people.
Eli's father had a workshop.
In this shop he worked upon rainy days.
He made wheels and chairs.
Eli grew up like other farm boys.
He helped on the farm.
He attended the district school.

He took care of the cattle and horses.
But very early in his life he became fond of tools.
He used to creep into his father's shop.
He could scarcely wait to be old enough to use the tools there.
One of the interesting tools was a lathe for turning chair posts.
His father allowed him the use of all these as soon as he was large
enough to take care of them.
After that, he was always at work at something.
He liked work in the shop much more than work upon the farm.
Eli's mother died when he was a little boy.
This is a sad event in any boy's life.
When Eli was about twelve years old, his father took a journey from
home.
He was gone two or three days.
When he returned, he called the housekeeper.
He asked her what the boys had been doing.
She told him what the elder boys had done.
"But what has Eli been doing?" said he.
"He has been making a fiddle," was the answer.
"Ah!" said the father, "I fear Eli will take his portion in fiddles."
The fiddle was finished like a common violin.

It made pretty good music.
Many people came to see it.
They said it was a fine piece of work for a boy.
Afterwards people brought him their violins to mend.
He did the mending nicely.
Every one was surprised.
They brought him other work to do.
Eli's father had a nice watch.
Eli loved to look at it.
It was a great wonder to him.
He wished to see the inside of it.
His father would not allow this.
One Sunday the family were getting ready for church.
Eli noticed that his father intended leaving his watch at home.
He could not lose such a good chance.
So he pretended to be quite sick.
His father allowed him to stay at home.
Soon he was alone with the wonderful little watch.
He hurried to the room where it hung.
He took it down carefully.

His hands shook, but he managed to open it.
How delightful was the motion of those wheels!
It seemed a living thing.
Eli forgot his father.
He thought only of the wonderful machinery.
He must know just how it went.
He took the watch all to pieces before he remembered how wrong it
was to do so.
Then he began to be frightened.
What if he couldn't put it together!
He knew his father was a very stern man.
Slowly and carefully the boy went to